60 September 1986 Marxism Today CLOSE UP ON Mick McGahey Donald Maclntyre ick McGahey leaves the 1981. And his steadfast refusal to TUC general council this criticise his two colleagues in the month having finally 'Troika' (his word) at the top of the emerged as a focus for NUM must at times have cost him opposition, albeit still muted, to dear. Arthur Scargill within the NUM. For there were signs below the When Peter Heathfield was elected surface during the strike that general secretary in February 1984, it McGahey was less than wholly happy was widely assumed that he would with its conduct. Privately - and still use the constitutional authority without criticising the NUM president invested in the job to assert himself as - McGahey let it be known that he a counterweight to Scargill. would prefer more emphasis on attacked by both Heathfield and energy. In the early stages of the 1984-5 propaganda which stressed coal as a Scargill on the grounds that he had McGahey's Communist party miners' strike it was McGahey who national asset. The lobby of been a willing party to the decision by membership has always been central thundered that the rightwing parliament, proposed as a welcome the Left not to pursue a ballot. That to his union activities, and he has suffered from 'ballotitis' and that the distraction from mass picketing and was true; neither McGahey nor played a significant and sometimes union would not be designed to raise the wider energy Bolton had questioned the strategy at critical role in recent debates about 'constitutionalised' out of taking issues, was McGahey's idea. the time. McGahey, undaunted, rose the future of the party. When asked action, while Heathfield was thought McGahey's liking for the to Bolton's defence at the Scottish what he would do when he retired to harbour doubts about the wisdom broadly-based political campaign was miners' conference in June of last from the NUM leadership, McGahey is of a strike that might close more pits illustrated by the success of the year. reported to have said that he would than it could save. coalitions-including politicians and He had not believed in a ballot at be seeking a safe Communist seat in Yet two years later it is McGahey, church figures-which the Scottish the time, he frankly admitted, but the Scotland. the Communist vice president of the NUM assembled in support of sacked failure to hold one had caused No doubt the split within the NUM, and not Heathfield, who is miners and the Scottish steel industry, problems. Moreover, a ballot might Communist party, a member of whose cutting a distinctive figure in the the latter of which campaigns was have been won, he suggested, and in executive he has been for over 20 NUM Left. contemptuously dismissed by Scargill that case Notts might well have come years, has sharpened his differences McGahey has still not broken at Tenby. out. with Scargill, who has continued to openly with 'that young man', as he Nor did Scargill and Heathfield's As recently as this summer Norman side with the Morning Sterfaction. has referred to Scargill for years. But distaste for involving the TUC find Stone, the eminent historian, recently But it is McGahey, the lifelong this year's NUM conference in Tenby favour with the vice president. described McGahey as a typical 'red Communist, rather than Scargill, the marked a turning point. McGahey Indeed, it was McGahey who was Clydesider'. In fact, of course, his Labour party member, who is made two significant interventions. forced to telephone his two background is a different one. The emerging as the voice for unity within The first was on Nottinghamshire in colleagues in Sheffield on the eve of son of a founder member of the the NUM, and with the Labour which he warned against putting the 1984 TUC congress and insist that Communist party, McGahey grew up leadership. obstacles in the way of reuniting the they travelled to Brighton to meet in Shotts before the family was forced The Carter critique, along with NUM. The second, seemingly trivial Len Murray and other senior TUC to move to Cambuslang when heavy input from South Wales NUM but with wider implications, was over leaders for the first time since the McGahey's father lost his job in the activists, helped to inform Kinnock's the role of the press, once again beginning of the strike. Lanarkshire coalfield after the 1926 electrifying attack on the NUM ritually attacked by Scargill. Both these issues, the failure to strike. president during last year's Labour McGahey gently reminded his make the wider case for coal and to It is astonishing, too, to leaf party conference. McGahey remained audience that one of the conference's involve the TUC more deeply from the through newspaper cuttings silent at the time, but after a meeting purposes was to address a wider start of the dispute, were raised in the describing him as a cold man with Kinnock on the eve of this year's audience and that the media were now famous critique by Peter Carter, incapable of small talk: widely read, Scottish Labour conference, McGahey the vehicle for that message. Within the Communist party's industrial courteous to colleagues across the went out of his way to declare he had the executive he and Eric Clarke, the organiser, of the strike strategy. It whole political spectrum, a devoted no dispute with the Labour leader. Scottish miners' secretary, argued and was inconceivable that McGahey, as husband, father and grandfather, he It is unlikely that McGahey will voted against the arbitrary banning the most senior Communist in the has an endless fund of excellent trade openly condemn Scargill for his of Tom Condon, the industrial editor NUM, was not consulted on some of union and political anecdotes. continuing emphasis on industrial of Eddie Shah's Today. the ideas in the Carter paper. He is an avid newspaper reader confrontation and his bitter attacks McGahey is entitled to believe that But the Carter critique went with a critical interest in journalism on Notts miners as Spencerites before he has handsomely paid his debts of further; it questioned the mass and journalists. His most or after he steps down as vice loyalty to the NUM president. picketing strategy and most self-destructive traits are going to bed president in July; though there are Prevented from seeking the top job explosively of all, it argued that the too late if the company is good, and a many within the NUM and the Labour by the then president Joe Gormley's failure to hold a ballot had been heavy smoking habit. Yet for a man party who would like him to do so. procedural manouevre in the late 70s, central to the defeat of the strike. who was beaten up by unknown But it is the wider political struggle to which prevented officials over 55 When George Bolton, Communist attackers towards the end of the defeat Thatcherism, rather than the from running, McGahey helped to party chairperson, suggested as much miners' strike, and who has had ideological purism of Scargill and his mobilise the Left in support of the publicly in a post-strike Marxism indifferent health for several years, supporters, which is commanding the Yorkshire president's campaign in Today seminar, he was bitterly he is still displaying a good deal of formidable McGahey loyalties now..